Wednesday … Taking the push

This deal came up when playing with students.  South held

With everybody vulnerable West (me) opened 1♦ .  The auction continued

Do you bid on or satisfy yourself with playing game?   Your 2S bid was forcing but you could have passed a 3S bid by North.  So North has something extra along with spade support.  You have a lot on reserve.  The CQ singleton which might not be very useful on same hand is likely to be a big card after partner’s overcall.  You should continue.  You have a terrific hand, full of controls.  And it would be right.  Here is the whole hand.

North ♠ KQ62 ♥ 6 ♦ K9 ♣ KJ10642

South ♠ A10985 ♥ AQ74 ♦ A52 ♣ Q

North set the way by bidding 4♠ .  She considered her well placed high cards (even the ♦ K figures to be a trick) and her great spade support.  But South was a bit too wimpy and passed 4♠ .  Do you like North’s bid?  I do.  Hand evaluation is very important in getting to slams (even more important than getting to games).  Counting points is only a small part of the job especially when you have found a fit.  Controls are very important, obviously.  Aces are worth much more than 4 points.  But so is a source of tricks and extra trump length.  Now here is an extreme example of points schmoints from the same game.

You side is vulnerable and your partner overcalls 1D with 1NT.  You transfer to spades and partner accepts the transfer (but does not superaccept).  Do you bid on or not? 3♠ or 4♠ ?

I think it is automatic to bid 4♠ when I have a decent six card suit opposite an opening notrump bid and a bit more.  Here the bit more is the extreme shape.  So I would bid 4♠.  I know you have 4 lousy points.  Here is the whole deal:

North ♠ KJ8632 ♥ 4 ♦ 2 ♣ 109764

South ♠ 109 ♥ K73 ♦ AQ63 ♣ AQJ8

I don’t really have an ideal hand.  I have a minimum, wasted red cards and a minimum spade fit but I do have a good club fit so the spade game is a good bet.  If North bids only 3♠ will South go?    A hard choice but probably I would.  I hate missing vulnerable games.  I would argue that I have fillers in any side suit that North might have and that my hand has good controls.  I would wish my spades were a touch better.